/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.22691127]

Is there one of these which is remotely readable? Like a single one? Or are they the cop procedurals of novels? I got halfway through picrel b4 dropping and I don't remember a single thing that happened or character.

[Anonymous No.22691206]

>>22691127
My local bookstore only stocks Cultivation novels written for Fujos. I underestimated the commercial power of female autism

[Anonymous No.22691374]

>>22691127
What is a cultivation novel?

[Anonymous No.22691446]

>>22691374
Progression fantasy based on chinese internal alchemy and martial arts. Through meditation, tai chi and swallowing special pills cultivators are building up and refining their Qi and trying to break through bottlenecks in order to get to a higher realm and become an immortal god.

[Anonymous No.22691457]

>>22691374
Here is somebody reading out the top review for one of the most popular cultivation novels. (The person who wrote this review gave the novel 2 stars.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l0WnLWT40g

[Anonymous No.22691624]

>>22691374
Dragon Ball Z but from a time before Anime and a completely different world view

[Anonymous No.22691724]

It's not just trash. It's abominable. I posted a long autism rant in /a/ about these things, but the general gist is that it comes out of the retarded "honor culture" world view where you become stronger just so you can be the one raping women and doing hellish things to your rivals. The fellating romanticism with which it describes the mc is reminiscent of the propaganda surrounding the Kim Jung family, which teaches its populace that the glorious leader doesn't have to shit, because he burns all of his food as energy to work for the people of Korea.

All in all they're pretty fucking gay and you're better off looking for merit in Harry Potter. At least the moral framework there won't actively turn you into a terrible person; just a juvenile one.

[Anonymous No.22692046]

>>22691457
lel, this was spot on.

[Anonymous No.22692053]

>>22691724
I think you're overanalzying what is in effect Shonen DBZ Trash*, but okay anon.

*(with Chinese characteristics)

[Anonymous No.22692070]

>>22691724
>you become stronger just so you can be the one raping women and doing hellish things to your rivals
B-B-B-B-B-B-BASED

[Anonymous No.22692072]

>>22692053
I'm actually concerned that I don't have enough information to analyze it properly. From a fairly cursory view of the thing itself, and using what limited knowledge about the orient that I have, I think it's morally bankrupt. Goku is at least a decent person

[Anonymous No.22692147]

>>22692072
It's more Nietzschean in it's morality than anything, despite the lack of exposure to Nietzsche in the east

[Anonymous No.22692151]

>>22692147
That doesn't sound right either. Nietzsche abhorred the idea of revenge, and revenge is a primary motive in these things.
>That mankind be delivered from revenge. That is to me the highest of hopes and a rainbow after long storms.

[Anonymous No.22692168]

>>22692151
>>22692147
Addendum: I think it's more related to honor culture. Traditional China was a cruel and brutal place. Look up 9 familial exterminations or "Consort Qi human pig" for some misery porn. I don't think even inquisition Spain was that wicked.

[Anonymous No.22692965]

>>22692072
There are novels where MC is untalented genetic trash but thanks to luck, having foresight and being resourceful, shrewd, cunning, patient and hard working he survives and keeps a low profile so he can cultivate and gather resources without drawing attention. You have to understand that in cultivation worlds might makes right and you have to be cold and merciless to a degree because your enemies won't have any mercy for you. People will lie, scam, take advantage of you and steal if they know they can get away with it or if you let them. Being a "good/moral" person will literally just get you ripped off or killed. "Goodness" = weakness. In xianxia and in real life. Much like Jesus you will be tortured and crucified. If you are smart you will adapt to the situation. There is no good or evil in nature. All living beings are just doing their thing trying to survive and sometimes they cross each other's paths. Understanding chinese history, daoism and internal alchemy is crucial to be able to enjoy the progression the MC makes towards becoming an immortal. It's a brutal world but it's much more realistic and educational than anything most western media produces.

[Anonymous No.22692976]

>>22692072
Goku caused the death of billions while fighting Beerus. Even before that, the number of deaths he caused unintentionally has to be at the very least tens of thousands.

[Anonymous No.22694455]

>>22691724
>become stronger just so you can be the one raping women and doing hellish things to your rival
I'm laughing at how true this is. historical Chinese literary culture kills me

[Anonymous No.22694489]

>>22691724
Have you ever lived on a nut and fruit diet? One rarely shits or shits very small amounts on a nut and fruit diet. It saves time from going to the bathroom every so often, but it's hard to upkeep all the time. Plus, nuts and fruits are cultivar trees.

[Anonymous No.22694564]

>>22694489
Okay but what about this fat fuck makes you think he's eating fruits and nuts?!
He basically just has a limousine that's conveniently shaped like a portable shitter and follows him around wherever he goes.
>>22692965
There's a difference between being shrewd or pragmatic and being sadistic. I do not think Chinese people properly understand it. It shows in how they treat animals, motorcyclists, foreigners, and anyone in a vulnerable position.

[Anonymous No.22694585]

>>22691446
What about semen retention?

[Anonymous No.22696021]

>>22694585
Some novels use the method of dual cultivation which is basically daoist tantric sex. MC having sex with jade beauties makes him stronger.

[Anonymous No.22696079]

>>22696021
A jade beauty suffers a deadly qi imbalance because of her extreme yin physique and MC must save her by raping her to rebalance it.

This is an actual, common thing. "Yin=feminine" is also a trash interpretation, but the writers of this slop don't care about that.

[Anonymous No.22696084]

>>22696079
>"Yin=feminine" is also a trash interpretation, but the writers of this slop don't care about that.
Oh, enlighten us, fellow Daoist.

[Anonymous No.22696095]

>>22696084
Yin and yang are fundamental aspects of the fucking universe. Associating them with ambiguous human qualities is stupid. Also, people who do this tend to have a BLATANT yang bias. Like "yang=good in everything but name" and "yin=evil in everything but name, except it makes women sexier(which they mostly use for evil)".

Reanimated corpses tend to be sufficed with yin energy. Do male cultivators benefit in their practice by having sex with those? I don't think so.

[Anonymous No.22696104]

>>22696095
Oh, so rather than it being a shit interpretation you are just an ideologue and dislike it. Got it.

[Anonymous No.22696119]

>>22696104
It's a bad interpretation because it leads to bad writing. Yin and yang should simply mean passive and active in a highly abstract sense, and it shouldn't devolve into a laundry list of qualities drawn from bias.

[Anonymous No.22696122]

>>22696119
It's not an interpretation, it's a fundamental part of Taoism. You don't get to rewrite an ancient religion's tenets just because you have been indoctrinated with feminism and LGBTQIA nonsense.

[Anonymous No.22696131]

>>22696122
The Great Dao was not created by mortals. They do not get the last word on anything about it.

[Anonymous No.22696144]

>>22696131
>says the guy who wants to rewrite fundamental forces of the universe because they hurt milady's feefees

[Anonymous No.22696145]

>mfw tao te jing might genuinely be a real taoist inner cultivation manual

[Anonymous No.22696160]

>>22696145
Yes, if our planet's core hadn't been shattered and its cultivation crippled, we could breathe the qi of heaven and earth and cultivate according to the instructions in it.

[Anonymous No.22696161]

[Anonymous No.22696165]

>>22692965
>You have to understand that in cultivation worlds might makes right and you have to be cold and merciless to a degree because your enemies won't have any mercy for you. People will lie, scam, take advantage of you and steal if they know they can get away with it or if you let them. Being a "good/moral" person will literally just get you ripped off or killed. "Goodness" = weakness.
Isn't that just regular China?

[Anonymous No.22696173]

>>22696160
No, but apparently that’s a real theory as to why the dao de jing was compiled.

If you’ve read real life cultivation manuals, then you know why tha theory might be plausible.

They’re all absurdly esoteric.

[Anonymous No.22696186]

>>22696173
Meanwhile, the chakra system was concisely explained during one episode of a fucking children's cartoon.
No wonder the Buddhists won.

[Anonymous No.22696202]

>>22692147
I mean Nietsche didn't really invent that type of morality. Just put it into words in order to contrast it with "slave morality".

[Anonymous No.22696228]

Not all xianxia MCs are psychos.

[Anonymous No.22696967]

>>22691206
those are the only ones that are decent

[Anonymous No.22696975]

I never once heard of this before Sseth's Cultivation Simulator review, but apparently loads of Westerners already had.

I am not looking forward to the Chinese century.

[Anonymous No.22697115]

>>22696975
It seems like the Han Chinese have only recently reached their scientific racism stage.

[Anonymous No.22697170]

>>22696228
Op here, this is exactly the show I was thinking of, which is trash, but good trash as Steven King would say. Nothing in there about becoming toxic really other than that the MC is a total Mary Sue. But it is one of the few anime, or donghua or whatever that is actually funny with real humor vs anime humor.
I think its somewhat clear that the guy who originally made that assertion didn't know what he was talking about. Nor do I think that sort of thing would have gotten past the pretty strict censorship board in China.

[Anonymous No.22697180]

FUCK IT.
I'm going to write a western Cultivation novel, but its gonna have titties and dinosaurs. A lot of this chinese shit is gay as hell.

[Anonymous No.22697191]

Reverend Insanity is one of the greatest literary achievements of 21st century. Fuck trannies and fuck ccp for censoring it

[Anonymous No.22697255]

>>22691127
virtuous sons

[Anonymous No.22697259]

>>22691127
There is only Reverend Insanity. Nothing else is worth reading.

[Anonymous No.22697565]

>>22691127
Just stick to shit written by japs or koreans
Quality chinese fiction is extremely rare

[Anonymous No.22697566]

>>22697180
make the dinosaurs gay

[Anonymous No.22697893]

>>22691724
>where you become stronger just so you can be the one raping women and doing hellish things to your rivals
that's correct though

[Anonymous No.22698076]

>>22697170
"Mary Sue" kind of doesn't apply to xianxia, because they often have Monkey King logic where the world is so unbelievably corrupt that reality itself mandates the existence of an inexplicable entity whose purpose for being is to fuck everybody up.

[Anonymous No.22698121]

>>22698076
In the specfic anime (or whatever the term is for china anime) the world isn't really like you're describing. Its chinese censorship board approved happy happy max social credit optemism and none of those darker themes that guy was commenting on are really touched on, as is the case with most of the chinese pop stuff I've come across. I think that guy was referring to classical rivers and lakes chinese lit.

[Anonymous No.22698225]

>>22696095
Kinda funny to have a yang bias when when most metaphors for the dao emphasize yin aspects, e.g. water, the emptiness of the bowl, the mother of all things.

[Anonymous No.22699242]

>>22696202
Yeah but it’s great shorthand for that Dionysian spirit embodied by the best Cultivation fiction protagonists

[Anonymous No.22699246]

>>22697115
They’re speed running the last century or two. When I went to china a decade ago, they had only just begun going into their emo pop music phase

[Anonymous No.22699248]

>>22697180
Make a cultivation system based entirely on credit score and esg rating

[Anonymous No.22699440]

I hate how westerners say wuxia but they actually mean xuanhuan or xianxia, and say xianxia but they’re actually referring to a kung fu wuxia novel.

[Anonymous No.22699456]

>>22699440
Unfortunate that the sseth video made this even worse because he also used the wrong term, though I don't think I've seen people mislabel wuxia as xianxia. I've only seen the inverse.

If a cultivator travels to another setting, is it xianxia or xuanhuan? It has a xianxia system because a xianxia character is there, but it's not a xianxia setting.

[Anonymous No.22699523]

>>22692168
The spanish inquisition wasnt actually cruel, or at least not in the standart of the time period: executions were rare, and most of the time they just took the property of suspected jews, moors and heretics, not their lives.
Their infamy is the result of anglo propaganda against Spain.

[Anonymous No.22699543]

While the moral bankrupcy of some elements in chinese culture disturbs me, is the soul-crushingly bad prose what keeps me away from this genre. Dunno if it is the effect of translating fiction from an alien language and an alien mindset, but often reading those things feels like torture.

[Anonymous No.22700925]

>>22691127
Chinese in real life are soulless bug people, cowards to the core with barbaric tendencies when they feel like they can get away with it. They lie, cheat, scam, live in filth without the realization that their subhuman behavior induces a karmic debt to all of society, turning their life into a hellish existence because collectively they all are evil scamming faggots. I guess it's like the prisoners dilemma, if one company dumps chemicals into the rivers, it's not so bad. If everyone does, you quickly cause massive unfixable problems that will come back around to fuck you and your descendants up.

I don't hate Chinese I mostly find them disturbing, gross, annoying, and dubious. They seem like the type of people that unironically would benefit from Christianity and I'm not a Christian. They have such a primitive "pagan" style of morality, not something noble like Conan or some Germanic tribes warrior ethos, they are just poor peasents like the villagers from seven samurai that are chronic thieving groveling, short sighted cowards. They desire to be powerful not to fix anything but just to impose their evil desires on others with impunity. Reminds me of the monk in kill bill, who was some insane psychopath but everyone treated him like he was a pure enlightened sage. The way many Asians seem to not understand what God or transcendent good is is actually really sad and pathetic. It's like how 50% of anime is Japanese kids killing God, after a while it feels like some obsessive seething pathology that is more sad and pathetic than anything else. As if all God could be is a strong mean monster that gets killed by friendship, no introspection that anything higher or better is possible. I don't know if I'm making sense basically they are cringe fags who think they are Goku when in reality they are a weak deluded slave

[Anonymous No.22700936]

>>22700925
But the Japanese aren’t Chinese?

[Anonymous No.22700944]

>>22700936
I'm not saying they are I'm just saying they both seem to lack any conception that God or transcendent good is possible. It is a little embarrassing to be honest, can't tell you how weird it is when I'm playing some random jap game and they start trying to kill god out of nowhere, I'm thinking of raging loop specifically.

[Anonymous No.22700962]

>>22699248
>Randy swiped up on his banking app, his index finger sweaty with tension. His house house payment rushed towards the loan holder. "At last, I have achieved the next level." He could feel his power increasing. "I've achieved the 800th level."
>He flexed, his biceps harder then the fist of the patriarchy. Now to master the technique that had been so elusive. Smash the Fasc would be his.

[Anonymous No.22701165]

>>22691206
I need some examples.
I'm not a fujo but I tend to share some fetishes with them.

[Anonymous No.22701244]

>>22691457
keked

[Anonymous No.22701986]

I like the ones where MC is the avenger of nature and massacres the cloudboomers.

[Anonymous No.22702158]

>>22700925
Have you had one conversation with a Chinese person anon?

[Anonymous No.22702239]

>>22696095
>biological sex
>ambiguous
t. ranny

[Anonymous No.22702266]

Cultivation Chat Group, it's meant to be a parody of cultivation novels tropes but ends up being better than 99.9% of them, explains the in-universe cultivation mechanics instead of just throwing words around and it's side characters actually exist and they're all interesting imo.
It's finished with over 3000 chapters, can't remember any chapter I'd classify as filler or mind-numbing plot loops.

[Anonymous No.22702481]

>>22702266
>explains the in-universe cultivation mechanics instead of just throwing words around
Exposition wank isn't typically good, though. I have my own autistic as fuck cultivation system and I don't think people would want to read the full explanation of how that works.

[Anonymous No.22702535]

I'm so inspired by this garbage slop that I've decided to begin my own great adventure. What do you guys think so far?

https://pastebin.com/gRxFbr6M

[Anonymous No.22702551]

>>22702481
The exposition happens across thousands of chapters as the MC goes through each level/realm, with hundreds of chapters in-between.
It also establishes what is baseline cultivation and how the MC's own cultivation severely diverges from it.
Even if your system is autistic as fuck, with that kind of spacing, it would be difficult to find issue with it.

[Anonymous No.22702562]

>>22702535
You're not getting to the point quickly, which is especially bad when you have hardcore self insert wank at the beginning. Also, am scoffing at the idea that somebody can gain esoteric sense from just the Tao Te Ching. You need REPS to get that shit up and running.

[Anonymous No.22702568]

>>22702562
I thought this was obvious, but the reader is supposed to recognize that the narrator's statements are ridiculous.

[Anonymous No.22702581]

>>22691457
This made me caugh-laugh coke through my nose and it burns real bad.

[Anonymous No.22702599]

>>22702551
What is your threshold for something being considered "explained"? If I say that a character needs to master 8 skills that fit particular criteria in order to master the element of Fire, does said criteria need to be stated? Does the reasoning behind why Fire has those criteria need to be stated?

[Anonymous No.22702681]

>>22702158
From China? No. Descended from Chinese immigrants? Yes. Look man I'm sure you can have perfectly fine Chinese people I'm talking about them as a group. Westerners have similarly bad problems too. You can't say anything without making generalizations and I don't think anything I said was wrong considering how fucked up that country has been for the past 100 years. Literally look at the quality of Chinese construction, the cooking with sewer oil, and a thousand other things. You can criticize the Chinese for their issues the same way you can criticize anyone else, like Jews have a massive supremacy complex and nepotism issues. It's just a fact. Trying to make excuses just makes things worse for everyone

[Anonymous No.22702729]

>>22702599
If you say the character needs to learn 8 discrete skills in RPG style, i.e. flamethrower, flame bolt, flame wall, etc and you'll become a Fire Master, then I would need to have the criteria stated and the reasoning. Because it would feel like an NPC giving me a quest with checkmarks.
But if you say the character needs to learn to manifest fire(flamethrower), AND THEN you say he needs to learn to manipulate that manifested fire and shape it into a ball and launch it(fireball), AND THEN you say he needs to make that fireball spread into a flame wall on impact or on a delay, AND THEN manipulate it into this or that shape, make it burn hotter, burn slowly but for longer...
The second is more of a continuous process of mastery with exposition on that process embedded into the entire learning process and I would be able to infer the criteria from it, manifest, manipulate, manipulate harder, with more precision, etc.

[Anonymous No.22702732]

>>22702681
Of course but you have to remember Chinese people themselves don't like the tofu dregs or gutter oil or the lack of golden samaritans - these are symptoms of something that lies outside peoples' morality.

The question of 'Chinese morality' is a mystery meat cause there's never been a central overbearing religion but it's actually quite straightforward.
t. 明白中文的白人

[Anonymous No.22702770]

>>22702729
It's a lot more abstract than that.
To comprehend True Fire Qi, you need to comprehend North Fire Qi, East Fire Qi, South Fire Qi, and West Fire Qi.
Zooming in, comprehending North Fire Qi requires mastering a skillset that resonates with North Fire Qi in both Major Yang and Major Yin forms. Without choosing an especially flexible skill, this means mastering two skills, so it's eight different skills total to comprehend True Fire Qi.

This isn't even getting into what the criteria is, exactly, for something to "resonate" with North Fire Qi, or what Major Yang and Major Yin forms are, OR why you need both, OR why each elemental True Qi has four currents.

[Anonymous No.22702892]

>>22702681
>>22702732
Not to mention that the Taiwanese are Chinese in everything but name yet Taiwan is basically Japan if Japan were 100% culturally chinese

[Anonymous No.22702912]

So, what are the GOOD qualities of cultivator slop? I see a lot of people who have read thousands of chapters but say it's all garbage. What keeps them coming back?

[Anonymous No.22702916]

>>22702912
It's like junk food.

[Anonymous No.22703008]

>>22702732
My point is that, just like Jews being nepotistic supremacist that worm their way into law, finance, entertainment, politics, and porn then proceed to do a bunch of really anti social evil practices for their own benefit, they eventually cause a reaction against their bad behavior. It is just karma, by letting or doing bad things, you reap what you sowed. If your biggest fantasy genre is about amassing material power and wealth to abuse others in a extremely morally relativistic and Darwinian universe, that is a symptom of the beliefs of the people writing and consuming this fantasy.

Ive literally heard people complain that westerns cant write cultivation literature because they insert their morality systems. If you cant see what im saying I cant explain it any more. They are shit so their fantasies are shit, simple as

[Anonymous No.22703071]

>>22703008
>Ive literally heard people complain that westerns cant write cultivation literature because they insert their morality systems.
And what, exactly, about "western" morality is so incompatible?

[Anonymous No.22703084]

>>22699248
>Alice gingerly retrieved her package from the delivery drone and returned swiftly to the seclusion of her room. Her face was a calm reflection of the blissful summer moon upon Yellowstone Lake that concealed violent geysers of excitement welling up within.

>She had taken up an installment loan of 12 monthly payments of 99.69 dollars to pay for it. If all things went according to her plan, as they frequently did, paying of such a loan would be enough to elevate her to the 740th level and achieve a breakthrough to the "Very Good Realm" but that was not the reason for her excitement.

>Within the innocuous bubble wrap was a sleek and glossy box made of 100% recyclable cardboard. Alice opened the box and carefully extracted its contents: a single glossy slate that bore the telltale markings of an Apple iPhone. Specifically an Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max, forged in moonless midnight by the virgin electronics artisans of the distant East. Such a powerful device could greatly elevate it's wielder power, provided they were skilled enough to make use of it

[Anonymous No.22703099]

>>22701165
>Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: The Comics
It's a Manhwa adaptation of a a chinese novel of the same name. Technically, it's a danmei/yaoi novel set in a Xianxia world rather that a strictly Xianxia novel

I see it a lot and it seems to sell very well

[Anonymous No.22703109]

>>22701165
>>22703099
Forgot to attach pic

[Anonymous No.22703114]

>>22703109
Which type of demonic cultivation?

[Anonymous No.22703128]

>>22703114
Ass penetration.

[Anonymous No.22703131]

>>22703128
How is it demonic to penetrate ass?

[Anonymous No.22703196]

>>22703099
>>22703109
Thanks much!

[Anonymous No.22703224]

>>22703071
Literally read my first posts. If you are really curious do you own research. It's just a materialistic, darwinian worldview and not the traditional universal objective morals that is not present in many religions

[Anonymous No.22703228]

>>22703224
That is present*

[Anonymous No.22703831]

A faint smile appears on my face as I write this while reflecting upon your inability to comprehend the immensity of heaven and earth. Silly moralists amuse me as they fail to understand they are hypocrites, virtue signalers and idol worshipers. All the laws of man, the good and the evil were made up by man. The great mother nourishes all and it is by the power and virtue that the natural law gives life to ten thousands things. Duality is an illusion and human thought result of inferior virtue that separates us from the One. All the systems, philosophies and religions are merely fingers pointing towards the shadows on the wall. Seeking to know what is casting the shadows is following the path.

[Anonymous No.22704364]

>90 posts in and nobody has recommended any books
nigga just tell me what the good ones are

[Anonymous No.22704728]

>>22701165

Not him but literally all the famous BL novels by MXTX including grandmaster of demonic cultivation. Just Google the name you get the majority of those put on bookshelves in the west.

>>22703114

From what I’ve read of it, just typical amoral spirit summoning plus ‘whoa wacky I didn’t think to manipulate spirits THAT way what a rebel, that’s against THE RULES’. It was pretty confusing and I felt I missed a lot of context from not knowing how that shit would typically go down in other webnovels.

[Anonymous No.22704820]

>>22691127
Finished reading Reverend Insanity. What should I do next?

[Anonymous No.22704826]

>>22704728
Summoning spirits can cause environmental poisoning depending on the type and method, or it could be demonic because the spirits are prone to going on a rampage the moment the master loses control of them.
There's typically two levels of demonic cultivation:
1. The previously mentioned stuff.
2. Direct human sacrifice or cannibalizing fates.